“Time and Money”
In a recent email I was reminded of something my mentor told me recently; Dear James… A few days ago I picked up the phone to have a chat with an ad rep for a publication/website I spent $18,000.00 to advertise on. I have been less than pleased with the results because they cannot seem to follow my directions in any way, shape or form. They’ve made all kinds of promises, and failed to deliver on any of them, not because they’re dishonest, but because they’re Incompetent, and are OK with incompetence. For example, I told them to put my full page ad in the front 1/3 of the magazine on a right hand page. They said they would do so, and it showed up on page 87 of 91, just killing the response. They promised me they would design some new banners, make some minor changes to the old ones, and despite my repeated “nudges” they’ve failed to do so. There have been other issues too, but the main issue is they think this is “OK.” When I got on the idiot ad rep about this, he said, “well, that’s only two mess-ups…” which was his final mistake with me. I went through the roof, telling him if he didn’t come up with a compensation package for me I would never do business with him again, tell everyone how incompetent his publication is, and call the credit card company to get my money back for undelivered promises. See, his attitude is the entire problem. It permeates the staff at this publication. They’re OK with “70% done right.” What they don’t get is, direct response doesn’t work if 70% is done right–it only works when 100% is done right. It’s not multiple choice, it’s true/false. 99% right is still an F. When you run into people with this attitude, you have to be brutal. You have to be harsh. You have to let them know there are dire consequences for incompetence. You have to let them know that because of their incompetence they’re stealing from you because they are. The only way you can get these people to get the job done is make the consequence for doing so painful, they are afraid to be incompetent. Like it or not, this is a fact. While I don’t prefer to do business this way (and I don’t with those rare gems who are competent), the truth is, at times you have to, or nothing will get done. When people discover you’re a no bs guy who takes no s–t from anyone, they tend to snap to, and get the job done. But you have to stay on them–the instant you let off, they revert to their old, incompetent ways… and you lose money. Let’s get to it… Michael Kimble Mike you are so right - time is more precious than money because it just can’t be replaced. If you have something you would like to share please send it to me .